Sylvia Earle

Sylvia Earle, born in 1935, American marine biologist, environmentalist, and diver. Earle is the first woman to have held the post of chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She has participated in several significant oceanographic events, and she has contributed extensively to scientists’ knowledge of humpback whales and the algae of the Gulf of Mexico.

Born in Gibbstown, New Jersey, Earle developed her love of aquatic life and the environment at an early age—first at the family farm in New Jersey, which featured a pond teeming with diverse wildlife, and later when her family moved to the west coast of Florida. After graduating from high school at age 16, she earned an associate’s degree at Saint Petersburg Junior College and a bachelor’s degree at Florida State University. She completed her graduate studies at Duke University, receiving a doctoral degree in botany in 1966.

After graduating from Duke University, Earle became resident director of the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. In 1967 she began working as a research scholar at the Radcliffe Institute in Massachusetts and as a research fellow at Farlow Herbarium at Harvard University. From 1969 to 1981, Earle conducted research at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1976 she became curator of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and a research associate in botany at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. In 1990 she was appointed chief scientist of NOAA.

Throughout much of her career, Earle has focused on the biology of algae in the Gulf of Mexico. Her 1966 doctoral thesis on this subject is still considered an important resource. Earle has collected more than 20,000 algae samples, which provide a baseline for studying changes in the Gulf’s waters over time.

Earle has participated in several noteworthy oceanographic events. In 1970 she and four other women lived and worked for two weeks in a chamber submerged 15 m (50 ft) below the ocean surface. This project, known as Tektite II, was funded by the United States government to study undersea habitats. In 1979 Earle broke the undersea depth record for a solo ocean dive, descending to a depth of 380 m (1250 ft) in an armored diving suit. More recently, she led the deep ocean engineering project known as Ocean Everest, in which she piloted a submersible to a depth of 11 km (36,000 ft).

Her other research achievements include studies of humpback whales. Her research on these whales is recorded in the documentary film Gentle Giants of the Pacific (1980). She is the author of Sea Change (1995), which reflects her concern about the exploitation of the world’s oceans and coastal environments. She made many contributions to the design of submersible craft, and she coauthored Exploring the Deep Frontier (1980), which focuses on deep-sea exploration.

Earle has received numerous awards, including the Director’s Award of the Natural Resources Council of America (1992). Two types of marine life have been named in her honor: Diadema sylvie, a sea urchin, and Pilinia earleae, a marine plant. She is a member of several scientific and conservation societies and has served as a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund. Earle is a cofounder of Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc., a firm that designs and builds small underwater vehicles for oceanographic research.